Coffey

I feel like WWE really dropped the ball on the return of Randy Orton last night. Why do it in the first match? Orton was red hot when he left and that felt very lackluster, like it was an afterthought.

Everyone knows his name & keeps talking about him, keeping him relevant. He's the Babadook of pro-wrestling. People seemingly bring him in because people start talking about it.

I feel like best case scenario for WWE is Brock to re-sign with the company & retain the title at Wrestlemania and go on a run as the top babyface. Set up a Rusev Vs. Brock match where Rusev & Lana are in the ring (still as U.S. champ) saying that no American can beat him only for Brock's music to hit. Nothing on this card came close to touching the 3-way from Royal Rumble.

I had actually totally forgotten about all the stuff recently with Kane & The Big Show. So them losing that match seems certainly plausible to me now. Are we really going to get Kane Vs. The Big Show as a Wrestlemania match this year?

Mostly when I hear Flair talk, it's just him putting himself over & burying a lot of other people, especially if they're not his friends. He's the best ever, he's wrestled everyone hundreds of times, all for over an hour everyday. He never slept, drank all the booze, banged all the broads, sold all the tickets & guys like Bret Hart couldn't lace his boots where as Triple H is the next Jesus Christ. It's to the point where I just don't believe anything he says anymore.

Cesaro & Tyson Kidd -Vs.- The Usos - Will be the same old Usos match we always get (which isn't a bad thing), most likely. I'm sure it'll involve some soap opera drama with Naomi & Natalya too. I could see the titles changing hands, just so a babyface team can win them at Wrestlemania. Goldust -Vs.- Stardust - I think the feud will continue, so I don't think we'll get a definitive winner. Maybe a DQ or Countout, something like that. Or Goldust leaving because he doesn't want to fight his brother. Hopefully it doesn't really happen until Wrestlemania, where Cody Rhodes can win definitively & hopefully obtain some sort of rub from it. It is going to be hard for me to ever care about Cody Rhodes. Certainly will not happen while he's in the awful Stardust gimmick. Nikki Bella vs. Paige (DIvas Title) - I don't think that Paige really needs the title to remain over, where as Nikki might. So I imagine that Nikki retains, maybe with Brie helping her cheat or something. Could be an OK match too, maybe a sleeper. Nikki has improved a lot. Dean Ambrose Vs. "Bad News" Barrett (Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship) - This match, with better build, would have had me excited & had potential. As it stands, I don't think Ambrose gains anything from winning the IC title & I think Barrett would lose quite a bit if he lost it already, so I expect Barrett to retain. Dolph Ziggler, Erik Rowan & Ryback -Vs.- Seth Rollins, Big Show & THEDEMONKANE - Nothing match featuring 3-4 terrible workers. Dolph will oversell stuff from hosses. Rowan & Kane will be as awkward as ever. Big Show will move at the velocity of Akeem. Ryback will raise his arms a lot & get blown up. Rollins will probably win. Triple H and THEVIGILANTESTING Confrontation - They need to do something to sell the Wrestlemania match... John Cena -Vs.- Rusev (United States Championship) - I think John Cena wins but I don't think it's by pinfall or submission. Even though Rusev has, in fact, lost on TV (to Jack Swagger on Main Event) WWE is still trying to present him as "undefeated." For awhile, they just, correctly, said never pinned or submitted. Now it's "undefeated" again. So I suspect Cena will win after a beatdown with a flag pole or something from Rusev to let the feud continue. I don't think John Cena as U.S. champion would be bad. I do think beating Rusev soundly before Wrestlemania would be though. Roman Reigns -Vs.- Daniel Bryan (Winner main events Wrestlemania) - I have zero desire to see Roman Reigns Vs. Brock Lesnar, where as I think Daniel Bryan Vs. Brock Lesnar would be a great David Vs. Goliath dynamic. Plus Brock could sell Bryan's submissions really well whenever he "got caught" (like being hit with a knee bar in UFC). Reigns just isn't ready, he's still at least another year off. He needs a run with a midcard title first.

Well, the non-internet fans that wanna see Bryan succeed wouldn't be happy. They don't know who the heck Samoa Joe is & wanna see Bryan win the big one (again) because it was taken away from him last time. I don't think Joe is capable of getting in the required shape in time for Wrestlemania anyway. He's a good six months away, at least.

In addition to the DQ stip not being used, and Corbin having to be face-in-peril, let's not act like Bull didn't blow the spot for the double over-the-top clothesline and then jump over by himself like 2-3 seconds later, when Corbin was already on the floor, completely exposing everything as fake and taking me right out of the match. To the point where the live crowd even audibly started mocking him. I see nothing in Bull. He comes off as a poor man's Steen/Owens to me, when Owens is in NXT now...

Great show. Only the Lucha Dragons & Bull matches were stinkers. The rest were good to great. Main event delivered, in my opinion.

I agree with all that, my dude. Well said.

Not sure if Triple H is even the one that made that tweet on his Twitter account. For what it's worth, on the podcast, he said people will probably have to Google Buddy Rogers, not look 'em up on the Network. I was distracted by how Austin & Triple H both kept looking at the laptop monitors. Austin, I can understand. Looking at the next questions or whatever...but what the hell was Triple H looking at? Made me feel like some of the answers were stock answers. It would be pretty cool if Austin could get The Undertaker out of character talking about stuff on his podcast next. I have zero desire to see Stephanie McMahon or someone like John Cena.

So are the photos of anyone that did Playboy. X-pac was in a porn. Not in WWE Hall of Fame but he was on RAW as recently as just a couple weeks ago.

Reigns didn't have outside help to win the Rumble though. Big Show & Kane were both already eliminated, then returned to the ring to beat down Reigns, which is when Rock came out. So whatever it's about, it's going to come off badly. But WWE need to start putting 'Mania more set in stone tonight. They can't waste anymore weeks of build. Fast Lane coming or not. We gotta get to Sting/HHH, Orton/Reigns, Cena/Rusev and apparently Bryan/Dolph now. People like Bray, Ambrose and the like need things to do too. When are Sheamus & Orton coming back? WWE feel so directionless to me right now. They gotta get back on track.

If I had to guess, I would say the announcement of Triple H Vs. Sting? I'm not sure...but I'm confident it will be something that does not have anything to do with Daniel Bryan.

I know Randy Orton needs to come back & settle the score with Seth Rollins over the stuff that put Orton out. That being said, I'm really hoping WWE does a double turn with Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. If Seth is the Jeff Hardy style babyface (which after his Rumble match, I think is pretty obvious he can do) and Reigns is the cocky chosen one heel, I think things would make a lot more sense.

I feel like Nikki Bella has quietly became the WWE's best working female. I never thought I would hear myself say this (or type this as it were) but I'm looking forward to some of the NXT gals (Bayley, Sasha) getting called up & working her.

I want a new Honky Tonk Man shoot. I don't know if I find anyone more entertaining than HTM. He just buries everyone, it's hilarious. "Ol' one-eyed Jack, hang 'em high!" "He said youse a piece of chit!" "Oh, A to Z, unbelievable."

He didn't need to "lose" the title because he got hurt & was stripped of the belt for not being able to defend it. Sure, he should get a rematch for his belt but you don't have him beat the guy that won the Rumble just to get to the title match. That fucks the winner of the Rumble and makes winning the Rumble look worse. WWE have really booked themselves into a corner here...

No big time feud ever featured Kane.

I thought the one that was different was Cena 'cause the rest were jobbers.

Why? It's not like the belt is changing on free TV. Nor should they act like it is going to. Paying to see title fights should be expected, in my opinion. Part of what devalued the titles, at least to me, was WCW & WWF giving away a bunch of stuff for free during the Monday Night Wars because they cared more about winning the ratings in a week instead of keeping their product strong. I agree that Brock was not around enough last year to be WWE Champion. He should have been, at the very least, at every other PPV. But I like him showing up sporadically, as it makes him feel like a bigger deal. If he was there every Monday to wrestle & the belt was with him each week, he would feel like everyone else on the roster: stagnant.

Maybe Bryan and Kane can continue their feud until Wrestlemania & have a buried alive match, where Daniel Bryan can literally be buried on the biggest show.

I freakin' loathe Kane. I think I've ranted about it before. The dude has sucked for 20 years. I don't care if he's "really safe" or a "company guy" or whatever the heck WWE is using to defend his push X or turn Y, he's just not entertaining. You can put him in a mask and have him set stuff on fire, or come out in a tie & talk like a politician, whatever, at some point the bell has to ring and he's a lumbering freakin' oaf. There's nothing special about him. He's slow, clumsy, awkward, I think he has to have the worst kayfabe timeline history of anyone in wrestling history...there's just nothing good about him. I wish he would go away. I wish he was gone ten years ago.

Can they just have some guys report to NXT and shoot from there?